Clients aren't showing up

[Calin]

I finally got SMS up and running. Now I have a new problem. No clients.

I have network discovery and logon discovery set up. I also have logon installation and NT remote client installation turned on. I have edited the logon scripts so that they call smsls.bat. Logon scripts are working. I have the client on my machine, and I had another administrator log off and back on to the network. He also now has the client installed on his machine. Both are showing the correct site code.

The problem is that our clients aren't showing up in the "All Systems" collection. The only systems showing up are the SMS server itself, and the DCs. The DCs are listed as not having the client installed, and don't show a site code.

I've been reading through this forum all day, and haven't found anything on point. I have, however, noticed that boundaries are almost always the first things to check. My network is configured as a single large subnet, 10.9.0.0/16. My suspicion at the moment is that SMS may not like the size of my subnet.

Any suggestions or solutions?
--
Toby Herring
Software Architects, Inc.
MCDBA, MCSD

 

[Calin]

Oops, I fogot to mention:

My network is an NT 4.0 domain, with all member servers (including the SMS server) being Win2k server machines. I have one Win98 client, two NT 4 Workstation clients, and the remainder of my clients are either Win2k Pro or Win2k Server.
--
Toby Herring
Software Architects, Inc.
MCDBA, MCSD

 

[Jpoandl]

Just curious...are your sure ALL of the client subnet masks are 255.255.0.0?

Boundaries use the client subnet mask to determine if the client is within the SMS site server boundaries.

Usually, however, even if you boundaries are incorrect, you will see the client machines. When you see them in ALL Systems, they show as discovered but not installed. Joseph L. Poandl
MCSE 2000

If your company is in need of experts to examine technical problems/solutions, please check out

http://www.esavio.com

 

[Calin]

Yes, I'm certain all of the clients have a 16-bit subnet mask. All client machines are using DHCP assigned addresses in the range 10.9.2.11 - 10.9.2.254 with a subnet mask of 255.255.0.0.

If any of them were improperly configured with a 24-bit mask, they wouldn't be able to communicate with the servers, which are in the range of 10.9.1.xxx.

I have a single large subnet at the moment because I can't get the budget for segmenting routers. When I manage to accomplish that, the first thing I'll do is segment the servers away from the clients.

With a single segment, I'm fairly certain that boundaries aren't my problem. But I have no idea what the problem might be.

I'm still not seeing any additional machines in "All Systems", only the SMS Server and DCs. The client should have been installed on most/all of my workstations this morning when people logged onto the network.

--
Toby Herring
Software Architects, Inc.
MCDBA, MCSD

 

[Calin]

I just double-checked and realized that SMS doesn't ask for a subnet mask when configuring boundaries.

Could it be that it automatically assumes a 24-bit subnet mask when defining boundaries? That might be the problem, since my boundary was defined as 10.9.0.0, but none of my machines are configured as 10.9.0.xxx.

It seems odd, though, to use a boundary system that's subnet mask dependant, but assume a specific subnet mask.
--
Toby Herring
Software Architects, Inc.
MCDBA, MCSD

 

[Jpoandl]

As I said before, "Boundaries use the client subnet mask to determine if the client is within the SMS site server boundaries."

This is a basic SMS concept. If your clients use a 255.255.255.0 subnet mask, you will have to identify each subnet. In your case: 10.9.1.0, 10.9.2.0, 10.9.3.0, 10.9.4.0 etc.

If your clients use a 255.255.0.0 subnet mask, you should have only one boundary defines: 10.9.0.0 Joseph L. Poandl
MCSE 2000

If your company is in need of experts to examine technical problems/solutions, please check out

http://www.esavio.com

 

[Jpoandl]

Another thing to try is installing the SMS client manaully on a few machines...

Run the SMSLS.bat on a machine. Wait about 10 minutes. Then look in control panel for the Systems Management icon to appear. Look under SITES to see if it found your site. Look under the components tab to see if the proper component (remote control, software/hardware iventory, etc) installed.

If you see problems, go to C:\windows or WinNT\MS\SMS\LOGS directory. Take a look at the CCIM32, CliCore, CLiSVC, and SMSlci logs... at first perform a search for ERROR..then just read the logs.

Hope this helps Joseph L. Poandl
MCSE 2000

If your company is in need of experts to examine technical problems/solutions, please check out

http://www.esavio.com

 

[Calin]

I realized what you meant shortly after I posted that. I wish this forum would let us edit our own messages.

All of my clients have a subnet mask of 255.255.0.0, and my boundary is set at a subnet of 10.9.0.0.

I checked several of the other client computers. The client is correctly installed on all of them, the three services are installed on all of them, and they all claim to be members of the correct site.

However, from the SMS Admin Console, I still don't see any of my clients, anywhere.

I now have an additional issue: When I first got the server set up, I configured User Account and User Group discovery. I thought it was working properly, because all of my users and global groups were appearing in the respective collections.

However, this morning I added quite a few global groups to the domain. User Group discovery is set to poll rather frequently. But none of my new user groups is showing up in the collections.

I have a feeling that I broke something somehow. Only problem is, I don't have a clue what it might be or how to go about fixing it.
--
Toby Herring
Software Architects, Inc.
MCDBA, MCSD

 

[Jpoandl]

1) Check a few of your clients. Goto Control Panel --> System Management --> Choose Properties.

- Look for the Site tab and verify that it is in the proper SITE.

- Look in the Components tab. Verify that all of the components are installed.

- If problems are seen: go to C:\windows or WinNT\MS\SMS\LOGS directory. Take a look at the CCIM32, CliCore, CLiSVC, and SMSlci logs... at first perform a search for ERROR..then just read the logs.

2) SMS has extensive logging. In the SMS Administrative Console, do you see errors recorded in the SYSTEM STATUS logging?

3) Check your discovery methods. I would looks at Network Discovery. I choose Topology, Client, Client OS. Make sure the Check Mark for Enable discovery is checked. Also click the SUBNETS tab and verify that the proper subnets are listed. I also use a DHCP server, so I put my DHCP server IP addresses in on the DHCP server tab. In addition, I like to use HEARTBEAT Discovery...You may want this enabled too.

-hope this helps.

Joseph L. Poandl
MCSE 2000

If your company is in need of experts to examine technical problems/solutions, please check out

http://www.esavio.com

 

[Calin]

:-/

I've done all these things several times over the past week. The clients that are installed seem to be properly installed with all components installed, as well.

I've had every discovery option turned on for at least 24 hours, with frequent polling for applicable discovery types.

I'm not seeing any errors anywhere. I've checked the internal loging. I've checked the status of everything. The clients that are installed are showing the correct site code and subnet.

At this point, SMS has become more time-consuming than it would have been worth. (We've had to go machine-to-machine to do the installs that I had hoped to manage with SMS.) So, I'm going to remove SMS from the server and clean up all of its logon accounts, then remove the logon script references.

I'll revisit this project at some point in the future, when I don't have anything else to do. It's dropped significantly on my priority list since I haven't been able to get it to work.

Thanks for all your help, though. Maybe by the time I revisit SMS, MS will have some more of the kinks worked out.
--
Toby Herring
Software Architects, Inc.
MCDBA, MCSD

 

[Jpoandl]

Sorry to hear your frustration. It sounds like you've already invested a lot of time in installing SMS. I wouldn't remove SMS just yet.

Don't give up just yet (unless you really need to...)

On the client. When looking at the Components tab in the Systems Management Properties, how many components do you see?

You should probably have a bunch:
- Availavle Programs Manager Win32
- Hardware Inventory Agent
- Remote Control
- SMS Client Base Components
- Software Distribution
- Software Inventory Agent
- Windows Management

All of these should show a status of INSTALLED. If not, check the client logs.

If the clients are installing properly, your site is probably working like it should. Maybe you have a problem with the MMC. You may want to load the SMS Administrators console on a remote machine and look at the database this way.

Another thing to try is to right click on the All Systems Collection and do SHOW COUNT.

Maybe look at the SQL database just to see if data exists?

Again, sorry to hear of your problems. In my environment, SMS rolled out very easily. I was converting from Intel Landesk to SMS. I was able to uninstall LANDESK and install SMS all through logon scripts. I only had to visit about 5% of my workstations.

-take care Joseph L. Poandl
MCSE 2000

If your company is in need of experts to examine technical problems/solutions, please check out

http://www.esavio.com

 

[lonza]

Hi
Just a thought
Have you refreshed or updated the collections in enterprise manager?